There is scientific consensus that the burning of fossil fuels will lead to a further rise in temperature. Acceptance of this reality is crucial to taking appropriate action. How can people be convinced to commit to taking action against the climate crisis? How can procrastination and inertia be overcome? Only through an all-encompassing change in our habits will we be able to contribute to achieving the climate goals by 2050. In this paper, we will look at the opportunities and possibilities visual communication offers concerning the climate crisis. It is necessary to break through previously established cultural images in our heads and to show alternatives in thinking and in acting.

So far, visual contributions to the climate crisis could be divided into four main categories: data visualization, documentary reporting, awareness campaigns, and visualizations of future scenarios. Information graphics on temperature rise, carbon emissions, or sea level changes, to name a few, help viewers understand the magnitude of the climate crisis and its impacts, as well as projections for the future, on a visual level. To put a face to the “hard facts” and enable people to connect the information presented in diagrams, media formats such as photography, documentaries, and reports, bring us closer to existentially threatening living situations of climate refugees. Using awareness campaigns, local politics promote more sustainable use of resources, and environmental organizations ask us to do without and to look for the beautiful nearby.

This thesis looks at mobility and, given the climate crisis, examines past advertisements of the car industry according to relevant parameters of visual communication. At the semantic level, spatial and formal relationships are explored. On the linguistic level, patterns and rules are worked out. Finally, image and text are considered. Furthermore, conclusions are drawn about the historical context of the advertisements. Through the examination of selected car advertisements, it will be made clear in which disproportion man, technology and nature meet and how cynical some advertisements appear from today’s perspective. The unstoppable development of the car industry – which is reflected in the title of the work: Of Mice and Gladiators – is also discussed. And in this context, the question is raised: When is a limit reached in terms of size and engineering?

The research question is: What enhances the process of change in relation to the ecological crisis using the example of visual communication?

Through modifications and comparisons of past and present advertisements, and generated and found visual material, contradictions between ecological aspects in interaction with human needs will be revealed. The resulting dissonances are intended to initiate self-reflection on the concept of mobility and movement. By interviewing individuals whose work has a connection to the field of mobility, the project is complemented by another level of information. In the newspaper supplement in the form of a magazine, interviews alternate with advertising segments and thus offer various temporal perspectives on mobility.